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Toshiba Completes $18bn Sale of Flash Memory Unit

Toshiba said Friday that it has completed the sale of its flash memory subsidiary, Toshiba Memory, to a consortium led by U.S. private equity group Bain Capital.

Toshiba actually sold the shares of Toshiba Memory Corporation (TMC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Toshiba, to K.K. Pangea, a special purpose company formed and controlled by a consortium led by Bain Capital Private Equity, L P.

The transaction makes Bain the new top shareholder of TMC. But Toshiba retains a stake, and together with optical products maker Hoya, continues to own 50.1% of the memory maker.

Toshiba has also granted each of Innovation Network Corporation of Japan and Development Bank of Japan, both of which have expressed interest in investing in Pangea, instruction rights for 16.7% of its voting rights.

The voting rights of SK Hynix will be capped at 15% for the next 10 years. The rest U.S. shareholders (Apple Inc, Dell Technologies, Seagate Technology and Kingston Technology) have also acquired shares in Toshiba Memory, though they do not carry voting rights.

The completion of the deal, initially aimed for by end-March, had been delayed due to a review by Chinese antitrust authorities.

Toshiba put its memory business up for sale after billions of dollars in cost overruns at its Westinghouse nuclear unit had plunged it into crisis.